Afterlife
by 8bit Ghost
Summary: One can only wonder what awaits them after death. One-Shot Valhalla


A one-shot tragedy I did for a contest on MHQ (which unfortunately died .). Please Enjoy! i worked very hard n this one, to make it perfect.

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Afterlife: One can only wonder what awaits them after death.

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It happened when we were on a training mission in the Galfar System. Simple stuff really. We would go out in Stiletto-Class Fighters and shoot random asteroids to bits. We would shoot each other in training environments with simple stun-guns. It was all military training material.

I remember it beginning with a simulation of Space Pirate attack. We were to find a way to repel enemy ships via the ship turrets. I was sitting inside of a turret at the time, shooting away at holographic ships being projected by flying probes outside our ship. I yelled in victory as I shot down the last one.

"Haha! Yeah! Hey, didya see that, Kerty?"

My friend Kerty replied back to me through the com-link. "No, I'm on the other side of the ship. Whaddya do?"

"I took out all of Level 16 in only 7 minutes and 34 seconds! I think that's a new record!"

"Seriously man? Dang, that IS a new record. You'd do great in the Stilettos!"

"I already do man, I already do."

"Well, at least I'm assured that I can hold onto my record of 45 in a row with the target practice drones in the docking bay."

"Hey man, that's harsh."

"What? I told you a million times that you can step off the activation platform when you do it. It makes it easier."

"Yeah, but I see that as cheating…"

My attention was diverted for a moment to the window of the turret room. Since I was pretty sure that I didn't activate Level 17 just yet, I looked out the window with caution.

"Hey, Kerty?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you know anything about a huge blue and tan ship with tentacles in Level 17?"

"No, why?"

I silenced as I watched in horror as the hulking behemoth of a ship neared our own, and that's when I realized that the training mission was over.

"Holy crap, Kerty, we're under a-"

My sentence was stopped as soon as the other ship collided with our own. Everything shook with massive force, and the lights flickered out life. Sitting in total darkness for a moment, I watched as more organic-looking ships pulled in toward our ship. Space Pirates! I realized how cunning their attack was. They were attacking us because we were all still trainees. I moaned in terror. Soon, the lights turned on, and the reverberating voice of Aurora Unit 313 echoed through the complex.

"We are under attack by hostile forces. Repeat: we are under attack by hostile forces. Repeat: we are…"

I listened as it continued on with its mantra. I hesitated in the pod. I had never fought anything like a Space Pirate before, and I was sure I wouldn't have needed to fight one until after my training. But as the hard truth of reality hit me, I knew it was either do and possibly die trying, or die as a failure. I squeezed my eyes tight, and decided to take action. I spoke into the com-link to get Kerty's attention.

"Kerty, you th-there man?" I said shakily.

"Ye-yeah…what happened?" He asked.

"We got hit by a Space Pirate ship. It's enormous! I think they're aboard our ship…"

"Wait, man…I hear something…"

I heard it too. Through the speaker, I heard a faint scraping noise, like as if metal was being ripped in half. Soon, that noise was replaced with a loud scraping, and I heard a scream, accompanied by a sound that resembled flesh being impaled. I was horrified, for I had already pieced the information together.

"Holy crap, Elston, they're opening the turret pods!" He whispered fearfully.

I tried not to feel the fear he was fearing. I listened carefully to the speaker, and a loud scraping noise caused me to jump.

"Oh crap, oh crap, they're opening my pod!" He whispered frantically. "Oh god, please, someone save me!"

"Kerty, snap outta it! We've been training for this, we gotta survive! You got your stun gun on ya?"

"What the hell is a stun gun gonna do to a Space Pirate?" He said, holding back a sob.

"It'll stun the pirate long enough for you to get its weapon! Now, set your gun to high, you hear?"

Kerty whimpered something, and soon, I could hear the familiar clicking noise the intensity knob on our guns made when turned.

"Ok, when he opens it, shoot him in the head!"

The noise that had been scraping in the background stopped, and a really loud scraping noise briefly happened.

"OH MY GOD!!!" I heard Kerty scream, and I soon heard shots fired. I heard Kerty grunt, and a loud snapping noise occurred, followed with a garbled scream from what I deduced must have been the Space Pirate. I then heard Kerty screaming angrily, and more garbled screams happened. Then it was silent.

I felt uneasy. I pulled out my own stun gun, and set it on high. Opening the door to my pod, I stepped out quickly and raised my gun in front of me. Nothing was nearby. I looked at the other pods, and noticed that everyone else had ran away. Looking around, I realized the pirates hadn't breached this area yet. I let out a sigh of relief. Walking up to a door set in the opposite wall, I pressed the button to open the door. Nothing happened. Pressing it a few more times, I realized that when the power shut off, all the door codes must have reset. That meant I would have to shoot it. Shooting the door with my stun gun, it opened after a short while, and I could see the damage that had been inflicted upon our ship. Windows were cracked and leaking air steadily. Several dead bodies lay scattered in the halls. The lights in the room were out, so the red light of the nebula nearby filled the room with an unbearable sense of dread. Last I could see in the room was the most horrifying of it all: Phazon. Little puddles of it lay everywhere, and a few of the bodies were covered and burnt with it. I looked at the mutagen cautiously. We weren't allowed to use phazon for training for many reasons, one of them being because it caused the terrible condition of phazon madness. I looked away from the horrible blue stuff and began to explore the halls. Nothing was living here, which was good in one way, but frightening in another. I was convinced the dead would rise any minute due to the phazon it was enveloped in.

Leaving the room quickly as possible, I was soon at the Stiletto repair room. Electricity sprayed out of loose wires that hung everywhere, and screams of pain and terror emanated from the bridge to the docking bay. A loud crash caught my senses; it sounded like the bridge had collapsed. Looking away from the door leading there, my attention was diverted upwards. There was a door at the top of the room, which I was certain led to the Aurora Unit chamber. If I could access the AU chamber, then I could send out a distress call via the AU network. Deciding to take this course of action, I ran up the ramp that took me only so far as 12 feet from the ground, and jumped to grab a ledge that hung above. Running, jumping, and climbing my way to the top, I made my way to the door. Near it, screens ominously flashed the word ERROR in bright orange. I ignored them and shot the door in front of me. The next room was the bio-scan room. Several holes were in the windows there, which allowed easy access to the other side. Climbing through, I passed a dead Space Pirate. Seeing it sparked my curiosity, for I had never seen one up close before. It soon began to creep me out though, and I turned around. There, on the other side of the room, was a dead soldier. I silently grieved him. As I was about to turn away, though, I saw that his weapon lay nearby; it was not a stun gun. I eagerly grabbed it and replaced my own with it. Testing it, it worked just fine, and I felt a bit more prepared. I crawled under a section of shattered glass to leave the central part of the room, and moved on to the next. More windows were cracked here as well, and a dead body was sitting to my left. However, something was horridly wrong with it, for it was colored a dark brown. I couldn't understand why it was like that. I reached to touch it, and to my surprise, a shrill ringing noise emanated from it, and it fell into ash. Thoroughly disturbed, I moved on to the elevator. Nothing seemed to be wrong with it when I got to it, but it was obvious that the carnage didn't stop here. I got onto the elevator and activated it, waiting as it headed to the top.

As soon as the elevator stopped, I heard much commotion on the other side of the door out. Guttural voices were heard, and I immediately knew that there were Space Pirates on the other side. I closed my eyes tight. I wasn't sure if they were going to leave or not, so I decided to take the initiative. I shot the door, and it whooshed open, startling many of the pirates. To my good luck, they weren't heavily armored. I quickly dodged a flurry of shots from one of them, and shot him in the head. He fell over dead, and this angered the others. They both began shooting at me furiously, causing me to take cover behind the door frame. I shot more blasts at them aimlessly, feeling ease when I heard a scream of pain and a thump on the floor. Jumping from the shadows once again, I continuously shot the last one, who eventually fell as well. I stood there for a moment. Never before in my life had I killed something with such a bloodthirsty intent. Once again, the hard truth of reality hit me, and I tried to move on.

Shooting the door leading to the next room, I suddenly saw a group of Space Pirates shooting at a small group of GF trainees. I yelled in surprise, and helped them out by shooting from my position. I shot one in the head, which sent it flying into the wall. The other pirates noticed this, and began to attack me. However, this was their downfall, because the trainees were able to dispatch them while they were distracted. I ran over eagerly to the others. One of them, who was carrying the detached blade of a Space Pirate, approached me.

"Is that you, Elston?" He asked eagerly.

I cried out in surprise and relief. "Kerty! You're alive! Oh, man, am I glad to see you!"

"I'm glad you're OK too." He paused. "Elston…this is horrible. Everything is completely destroyed."

"I know…by the way, have you seen any weird bodies around? They're all some kind of weird brown color, and they fall apart when you touch them."

Kerty stood there momentarily. "It sounds familiar, but I don't know why…if we see another, I might remember. Where were you headed, anyway?"

"I was going to the AU chamber to send out an emergency distress call. If the people over at Diaban get it, then we'll be saved sooner than we think!"

"I hope so man. Well, since we're not too far away from the AU chamber, then we'd better get going."

He gestured to the other trainees to follow him, and we all headed through a door to the right. As we were in the hallway to the AU room, we heard something. It was like an electrical ripping noise. I looked at Kerty, who nodded to me, and we opened the door.

We ran inside with our guns raised, but nothing could have prepared us for this. Something was ripping the AU tank from its fasteners. It was humanoid, but was wearing some sort of dark blue armor that glowed a lighter blue from the crevices of its suit. It let go of the AU at the sight of us, and began to float in our direction.

"Holy crap, HOLY CRAP, LET"S GET OUTTA HERE!" Kerty ran back towards the door and shot it to open it. However, it wouldn't budge. He frantically kicked the door, pounding his fists on it. As the thing neared us, we all scattered away from it. I hid behind a wall, and I turned around the corner to shoot at it frantically. It noticed me, and shot a blue bolt of something at my head. I quickly turned back, and watched as the blue beam hit the wall with a hiss. It was phazon. Dread filled me up, and I looked around the corner. The thing was shooting the other trainees with the phazon bolt as well. One hit a trainee squarely in the chest, and he vaporized into blue dust, screaming. The others saw this, and tried desperately to hide from the monster. Each one failed, however, and all that was left was me and Kerty, who had given up on the door and hid behind a wall near me. We both watched in terror as the thing returned to its task of ripping the AU from its power cords, each cord flailing after being severed. As soon as the AU was completely removed from its podium, the thing threw it downwards into the pit below. A metallic ripping noise was heard, and out of nowhere, the air in the room got sucked out. We both held onto the walls as we were drawn closer to the center of the room. But soon, the rush ended, and we floated gently to the ground. Kerty faced me.

"Man, what are going to do now?" he asked.

"The last thing we can do is go to the emergency radio station. If we go there, we can send a message to the G.F.S. Olympus for help."

"OK. Where is it?"

"You see up there?" I pointed to a door at the top of the room. "If we take the maintenance access, we can go through there."

"OK, let's get moving." Kerty began to climb a ladder that led up there, when suddenly, a shrill screech was heard. We both faced the hole in the center of the room, and to our horror, something began to rise from the hole. It was a strange creature, colored blue and had four long mandibles hanging from underneath it. Kerty was shaking in his suit.

"What's wrong, what is that?' I asked frantically.

He stuttered his reply. "A-a-a M-me-tro-troid."

The thing shrieked, and lunged forward at Kerty's head, and latched onto it. He screamed in absolute terror as it sucked away at something inside him. I shot it continuously, but nothing happened. It then let go of Kerty, who was now the same brown I had seen in the one body, and he fell to the floor, vaporizing as his remains collided with its hard surface.

I stood in shock. My friend had been killed by the metroid, which had now grown bigger after its meal. Suddenly, it released a loud shriek, and more metroids came phasing through the walls. I screamed, and began to frantically climb the ladder. The metroids lunged at me hungrily, barely missing as I continued up the ladder. I soon made it to the top, and opened the door out. Wind pushed against me as the room depressurized, and as soon as the air cleared out, I fell into the room exhausted. I looked behind me. The metroids hadn't bothered following me. I sighed in relief. These creatures weren't the brightest, thank goodness. Having nothing left to leave behind, I continued on my journey to the radio station. Many rooms passed before I made my way there. I was wondering why there hadn't been any Space Pirates seen in a while. It dawned on me that they hadn't come to kill us off, but to instead retrieve the Aurora Unit. That blue monster I saw must have been with them as well. I recalled my friend Kerty. With nothing left of him beside a memory, I felt intolerable grief for his death.

I finally reached the radio station room. Like the others, this room shared similar carnage as before. I ran over to the terminal for contact immediately. Pressing buttons on the terminal, I spoke into the microphone hastily.

"Hello? HELLO? This is the G.F.S Valhalla Speaking! I am the last survivor of a Space Pirate attack that occurred nearly 30-"

"Aurora Unit database access denied. Please input code for further access at the north terminal." The computer suddenly produced a small handheld screen with a five digit code on it. I moaned in dread.

"No, NO! This was supposed to be the radio station, NO!!!" I grabbed the screen angrily. As soon as I did, an explosion occurred behind me. Many Space Pirates began to fill the room from a docking ship that had crashed in. I shot as many as I could, still clutching the screen. I walked into a corner as they neared me. Scared beyond belief, I kept on shooting. Soon, there was only one left. I was about to finish it off with my blaster when the trigger jammed. I looked up at the pirate, and he stabbed me in the gut, leaving the blade in me. I slumped to the floor in pain. I watched as he grinned at my dying body, and he walked away, victorious.

I sit here now remembering all that has happened in the last half hour. All the fear, the pain, and death. And now, all that remains is me. And now, all that will remain will be nothing. I look down at the screen. Whoever finds it will know the code to access the Aurora Unit's final data upload, and will learn about the horror that took place here. I grieve to all who has died today, and all who felt pain they didn't need. We failed our mission. We failed everything. I look up to the sky. I'm smiling.

I will die in Valhalla, and go to Valhalla in the end.

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-TRANSMISSION ENDED-

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Well, that's it. Please let me know what you think! I have never done a one-shot before. So, please be critical if you can!


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